Dinos hoopsters already talking about next year

Carleton Ravens' Gavin Resch (3) tries to inbound the ball as Calgary Dinos' David Kapinga (0) defends during CIS men's national university basketball championship final game action in Vancouver, B.C., on Sunday, March 20, 2016Darryl Dyck / The Canadian Press

“When I open my door, I have a wall right in front of my bedroom, where nobody goes – I’m going to put it right there,” David Kapinga, luggage on his shoulder, is saying Monday morning at Calgary International Airport.

Tapping his head, he continues.

“So I can remind myself, ‘You know what? There’s another level that you can reach because you’re not first yet.’ ”

By now, you can bet the keepsake – Canadian Interuniversity Sport’s silver medal, earned by the Calgary Dinos men’s basketball team this past weekend in Vancouver – is up, getting stand-alone treatment.

With the whole wall to itself.

“The gold medal for the Canada West (championship),” says Kapinga, “that one is going to go on the shelf, right beside my mirror. But the second-place one? I need to remind myself every day.”

“Close to my head, close to my thoughts, when I sleep and when I get up,” says Owen-Thomas, who, like fellow fifth-year player Matt Letkeman, is done with the Dinos. “It’ll be within sight, for sure, every day.”

Glittering visual prompts aside, these Dinos are not likely to forget much about their run.

They shocked Ryerson, top seed in the tourney, to muscle into a Canadian championship game for the first time in 50 years. (To put that dry spell in perspective – the Toronto Maple Leafs have won the Stanley Cup more recently.)

“Crazy to think about,” says Jasdeep Gill. “There’s been a lot of great teams to come out of the University of Calgary, I would’ve thought some would have made it that far. But I guess not.”

Adds Kapinga: “We didn’t really think about the history of it or nothing like that. But after you actually accomplish history, it’s nice, right? Because you’re actually in the books now. It just shows how hard it is to get there.”

If an appearance every half century seems resounding, what does that say about the Carleton Ravens?

With Sunday’s businesslike 101-79 dumping of the Dinos, they collected their sixth straight national title, their 12th crown of the past 14 years.

And this – with their head coach on sabbatical and his nephew in charge – was supposed to be a rebuild.

“What have I got to say? Those guys are robots,” says Kapinga. “They live and breathe basketball. At breakfast, they were watching film of us, all of them. They were so focused. Everybody knew exactly what they were supposed to do – and everybody did what they were supposed to do well.

“I mean, they’re very, very good.”

The Ravens, fuelled by 16 three-pointers, had no trouble keeping the enemy at bay.

Lest the Calgarians get notions of a heroic finish, Carleton crammed in 30 fourth-quarter points.

“I wasn’t worried they were scoring a lot – they’re professionals at what they do, basically,” says Kapinga. “So you couldn’t even get mad at yourself or your teammates. There’s no reason to get mad, right? This is a game, played to have fun. The better team won.”

Chests puffed about the accomplishment? Heads down after the (nationally televised) drilling?

“It hasn’t really sunk in,” says Owen-Thomas. “We’re still kind of registering it, I guess. When it comes to next week and it’s Monday and we don’t have practice … it’ll start to sink in.”

Promisingly enough, they are already talking about next year. Chatter began post-game when the graduating duo of Owen-Thomas and Letkeman addressed the locker-room.

Their theme – remember this night.

“We said, ‘You now know what is required to win the gold,’ ” says Owen-Thomas. “Good for Matt and me to finish on this note, obviously, and good for these younger guys to experience playing a team like Carleton and to have that as their (bench)mark for next season and the following couple of seasons.”

And, just guessing, there is a predetermined spot on Kapinga’s wall for you-know-what.

First, though, sweat.

“After seeing the level that needs to be reached, I think now everybody understands that,” says Kapinga. “Next year, we’re going to bring it every day at practice – accountability, focus. Because, actually, it hurt a lot to not win it all.

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